- it's a Malapropism, isn't it? Named after Mrs Malaprop, a fictitious character famous for using the wrong words in an attempt to sound knowledgable, or well - educated. To give another example; some time ago during a bit of friendly banter on another site someone described me and another member as 'erstwhile members'. Kindly meant, no doubt. I pointed out that 'erstwhile' means 'formerly' - so, the sentence meant that my friend and I were once members of that forum, but no longer. Turns out she'd meant 'esteemed', or possibly 'estimable'.

Another friend on that site; an American philologist studying over here in the UK, said that this piece of mis-usage is fairly common in the US. Seems odd to me; but then, as Tolkien once remarked (in an entirely different context) 'Perhaps the Americans would like them?' [ie, his paintings for TH]